Colonel William Nelson selected to lead the football team as its Honorary Captain at the Sports Sciences game.

Colonel William Nelson of Durham was selected as the Coginchaug football team’s Honorary Captain for the season opening game on Thursday September 14th.  Colonel Nelson is the grandfather of Jesse Nelson, a sophomore linebacker for the Blue Devils.

Colonel Nelson graduated as a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army from the University of Connecticut’s ROTC program in 1952.   Following graduation he trained at Fort Dix in New Jersey and Fort Benning in Georgia.  In 1953 he was deployed to Japan where he served with a heavy mortar company attached to the 5th Cavalry Regiment of the 1st Cavalry Division on the island of Hokkaido.  While in Japan Colonel Nelson trained for a variety of combat roles including ski trooper, mountain infantry and air cavalry.

Colonel Nelson returned home from Japan in 1954.  When his active duty obligation ended, he enlisted in an Army reserve unit based in New Haven where he continued to train for possible call up to active duty.  During his time in the reserves, Colonel Nelson graduated from the United States Army Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas  where he was trained to lead Army units involved in interagency, intergovernmental and multinational operation.  Colonel Nelson retired from the reserves in 1980, ending a 30 year military career.     

Colonel Nelson and his wife Barbara moved to Durham in 1958.  They have lived in Middlefield since 2000.  Colonel Nelson  worked as a Department Superintendent at the Allegheny Ludlum steel mill in Wallingford for thirty years until he retired in 1985.